Puntland frees jailed Somali journalist

New York, August
1, 2011--The Committee to Protect
Journalists welcomes the decision by authorities in Puntland, Somalia's
northeastern semiautonomous region, to set
free reporter Faysal Mohamed Hassan on Sunday. Mohamed, who wrote for the
private news site Hiiraan Online, was serving a prison
sentence over a story claiming that two murdered men belonged to Puntland's
security personnel.

Puntland President
Abdirahman Mohamed Farole granted a pardon to Mohamedahead of the holy month of Ramadan, local journalists told CPJ. The
journalist had begun serving a one-year prison sentence in the port city of Bossasso following his
July 2 conviction on charges of endangering state security and publishing a "false
news report." Authorities arrested
Mohamed over an article claiming that two beheaded corpses found near a
Bossasso road were members of Puntland's security services. Police denied the
claim, local journalists told CPJ.

"I am very pleased
to be able to reunite with my family," Mohamed told Somalia
Report shortly after his release.

"While we are
extremely pleased that Faysal Mohamed Hassan was released, he should not have
spent even a day in jail on the original, flimsy charges against him," said CPJ
East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes.
"Puntland authorities should not use their positions to arrest and release
journalists at will and should allow the press to report without harassment."

Puntland authorities
arrested Horseed
Media Radio Director Abdifatah Jama on treason charges last year for
allowing an interview with an Islamist rebel leader, Sheikh Mohamed Said Atom,
to be broadcast. Farole issued a pardon
releasing the journalist two months after his arrest.